chicks dig unix

I took Thursday and Friday off work last week and I used those days to tidy my flat, with a little help. Yes, two days, 12-hours a day were really needed to do all the work. I threw out 7 black-plastic bags and two boxes of garbage and sent one bag of clothing to charity. We went through absolutely everything and I was ruthless with what I threw out. I haven’t had a prune like that in years, probably 3 or 4. I now have much less stuff and it feels great. It feels really great for the mind, to go through everything, to know where everything is and to know there isn’t as much stuff as there was anchoring me down. My place is like it never has been before, even when I first moved in. It looks and feels huge, everything is organised in wardrobes and cupboards and everyone who has seen it says “wow“. I can finally have company over again and not feel embarrassed or have to make excuses as soon as they enter.
I hadn’t been feeling very good recently and this prune and my new spacious, clean and organised living space makes me feel a whole lot better.

The food log I have been keeping experienced a bit of a burp because of last week, I wasn’t internetting and I wasn’t taking much of a log of what I was eating.

From memory, on the days I wasn’t keeping a log, I had things like (by no means a definitive list):

• Lancashire cheese, sweet Irish apple, apricot and sultana chutney on white soda bread with earl grey tea.
• Gingerbread latte
• Granola bar
• Onion rings, curry chips
• Rasp and fried egg
• Maple crunch serial
• Chana palak and pilau rice

So, back to regular service;

~2pm - Lunch:

• Heinz tomato soup (91% tomato!)
• 2 small baps, one poppy-seed
• bean salad

~8pm - Dinner:

• Home made tomato soup (yeah, I know, repetition - wait till you see the recipe though, it was delicious)
  • 4 vine tomatoes
  • 1 red onion
  • Half a courgette
  • 1 tin of butter beans
  • 5 sun-dried tomatoes
  • 5 olives
  • A few heaped tablespoons of tomato pasta sauce
  • 1 cup of wheatgerm
  • Seasoning: basil, sage and oregano (perhaps a mistake here as I usually season with this same combination of herbs with the result that a lot of my foods taste similar-ish)), salt, freshly ground black pepper and garlic
  • Method: sauté the red onion, finely chopped, in a sauce pan with vegetable oil. Add 300ml of vegetable stock. simmer for a short while and add the tomato and courgette, chopped. Strain and rinse the butter beans, add to the sauce ban. Simmer for a while more. When the soup has amalgamated somewhat, transfer to a liquidiser and blend on high power until the mixture is very fine. Return to sauce pan and allow to simmer at a cooler temperature for a few minutes.
• Had a bowl of this soup with 3 slices of bread. I have a bowl left for tomorrow

Right now I have cooling in the oven, from a temperature of several hundred degrees a pear and apple crumble:

• 3 apples, sliced
• 1 pear, sliced
• Cinnamon
• Crumble (flour, sugar, butter)

Haven’t tasted it yet but it smells jolly nice. I should have got some custard to have with it.

My copy of Mario Kart DS should arrive tomorrow, I’m looking forward to that!